1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ferromagnetic alloys characterized by a high saturation magnetization, low or near-zero magnetostriction and, in particular, to iron-boron solid solution alloys having a body centered cubic (bcc) structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The equilibrium solid solubilities of boron in .alpha.-Fe (ferrite) and .gamma.-Fe (austenite) are quite small, being less than 0.05 and 0.11 atom percent, respectively; see M. Hansen et al., Constitution of Binary Alloys, pp. 249-252, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. (1958). Attempts have been made to increase the solubility of boron in iron by a splat-quenching technique, without success; see, e.g., R. C. Ruhl et al., Vol. 245, Transactions of the Metallurgical Society of AIME, pp. 253-257 (1969). The splat-quenching employed gun techniques and resulted only in the formation of ferrite and Fe.sub.3 B, with no changes in the amount of austenitic phase. Compositions containing 1.6 and 3.2 weight percent (7.7 and 14.5 atom percent, respectively) boron were prepared. These splat-quenched materials, as well as equilibrium alloys which contain two phases, are very brittle and cannot easily be processed into thin ribbons or strips for use in commercial applications.